Abbas: No compromise on east Jerusalem as capital of Palestinian state

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH03/22/2014

Speaking at emergency meeting of Fatah Central Committee in Ramallah, Abbas briefs officials on meetings in the US.

The Palestinians won’t accept anything less than a fully sovereign state with east Jerusalem as its capital, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday.

Abbas was speaking during an emergency meeting of the Fatah Central Committee in Ramallah.

The Palestinians won’t make any concessions on their rights “regardless of the pressure and threats,” he said.

A Fatah official quoted Abbas as complaining that the US administration was exerting heavy pressure on him to make concessions to Israel in order to boost the peace talks.

“We reject any attempt to blackmail the Palestinians,” the official said. “We’re not going to surrender our rights under any kind of pressure and threats.”

Abbas briefed the Fatah officials on the outcome of his last visit to Washington, where he held talks with US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry on the future of the peace talks with Israel.

Abbas’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudaineh, said after the meeting that the members of the Fatah Central Committee expressed support for the PA president’s positions and his commitment to Palestinian rights.

The Palestinians who took to the streets across the West Bank last week voiced their backing for Abbas’s policies, Abu Rudaineh said.

The PA leadership organized a hero’s welcome for Abbas upon his return to Ramallah on Thursday.

The spokesman said that the Palestinian position remains clear and unambiguous. The Palestinians, he said, are committed to a just peace that would see Israel withdraw to the June 4, 1967, lines and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.

Abu Rudaineh reiterated the Palestinians’ opposition to any Israeli military or civilian presence on the land of a future Palestinian state.

On the issue of the refugees, Abu Rudaineh said that it should be resolved on the basis of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 (December 1948).

He reiterated the Palestinians’ refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, saying that the PLO had recognized Israel’s right to exist two decades ago.

“The Palestinian leadership has not received any written document from the Americans,” Abu Rudaineh said, referring to talk about a US framework agreement between the Palestinians and Israel.

The Fatah committee affirmed the Palestinians’ commitment to pursuing the negotiations with Israel until the end of the nine-month deadline set by the US administration, which expires at the end of April.